Voyez La Femme by Michaela Tegg

VOYEZ LA FEMME

VOYEZ LA FEMME By Michaela Tegg

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Is not the most erotic part of the body wherever the clothing affords a glimpse?â&#x20AC;? - Roland Barthes

FOREWORD Are we a nation of voyeurs? The UK is the most surveilled country in the world, with one surveillance camera for every fourteen people living in Britain. We seem to have developed an obscure obsession with the act of watching others and being watched for pleasure. The proliferation of technology though mobile phones, Internet streaming and social networking sites means that we have the ability to watch Paris Fashion Week unfold live on our screens from the comfort of our own home. It means we can log into LookBook.nu to see what someone is wearing half way across the world, or see what our favourite celebrity is wearing by ‘following’ their tweets. Similarly it gives us the ability to share our photos and videos with the rest of the world. We are constantly watching, and being watched… The media plays a pivotal part in the fashion industry, acting as a platform in which we are able to invent and present ourselves to others through the creation of an image. The clothes we wear and trends we follow determine our fashionability and social status, creating a strong desire to conform to what is presented as being ‘fashionable’ by looking at others for inspiration. Voyez La Femme is a project by final year BA (Hons) Fashion with Photography student, Michaela Tegg, who has been researching the concept of surveillance and voyeurism within fashion for her final year dissertation as well as her final year research project. Taking inspiration from British feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey and her 1973 essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’, as well as the stunning work of Brassaï and his interesting view of the ‘Secret Paris of the ‘30s’, Voir La Femme offers an extremely intimate look at the fashion body as a visual pleasure. The rationale behind this project is to question the viewers’ ideas about surveillance and voyeurism within fashion. Do we dress to be seen? Do we change under a voyeuristic gaze? Does fashion offer us a certain confidence or character...? These are all questions that the project aims to challenge and discuss through a dynamic collection of fashion film and photography.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to offer my gratitude and appreciation to all of those individuals who have offered their help and support within the production of Voyez La Femme. A huge thank-you to Anastasia Heale for being such an inspiration to me when writing my final year dissertation, which consequently led me to produce the Voyez La Femme project, I really admire her knowledge and appreciate all of her support. A special thanks to both Michael Daks and Sarah Hand for their amazing guidance throughout the entire project, offering me insightful and creative opinions along the way; for this I am extremely grateful. A special thanks to Sarah Howard for her outstanding contribution as Hair and Make-up artist, it was an honour to collaborate with someone so talented and creative. And finally, a very special thanks to the beautiful Steffi Green for her stunning performance, she is an extremely talented and undeniably beautiful young woman. It has been an absolute pleasure to share and experience this project with so many inspiring and highly creative people; I cannot thank-you enough for your support, advice and help that you have all so kindly offered.

CONTENTS FASHION STILLS A collection of beautifully voyeuristic photographs that offer an extremely intimate look at fashion. — 13 — BEHIND THE SCENES A glimpse behind the scenes of the Voyez La Femme fashion shoot. — 31 — FASHION FILM A range of stills from the Voyez La Femme fashion film. — 39 —

FASHION STILLS A collection of beautifully voyeuristic photographs that offer an extremely intimate look at fashion.

BEHIND THE SCENES A glimpse behind the scenes of the Voyez La Femme fashion shoot.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was really excited to work on the Voyez La Femme project with Michaela, I had never worked on a fashion film before this so it was a really exciting opportunity. The project has such a distinctive style, which I love... It was great to be able to bring my creative ideas to such an interesting collection of work.â&#x20AC;? - Sarah Howard, Hair and Make-Up Artist

“I had an amazing time shooting Voyez La Femme. I’ve never shot a fashion film before so I was really excited to get involved in such a unique concept. Voyeurism is a huge part of fashion and I think the Voyez La Femme project explores this concept in a really modern and diverse way... I’m so proud to have been a part of it.” - Steffi Green, Model

FASHION FILM A range of stills from the Voyez La Femme fashion film.

Voyez La Femme is a dynamic fashion film that follows a beautiful young woman in an extremely private environment. Shot on a Canon 550D, the short fashion film allows the viewer to explore the notion of voyeurism through a stylish lingerie story. The collection of images are stills taken from the original Voyez La Femme fashion film which explores the idea of the unseen photographer, creating a strong sense of secrecy both behind and in front of the lens. The film aims to question the viewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; ideas about surveillance and voyeurism within fashion. Do we dress to be seen? Do we change under a voyeuristic gaze? Does fashion offer us a certain confidence...? The styling cleverly allows the character to subtly develop throughout the narrative, offering expressions of confidence, vulnerability, sensuality and suspicion... But who is the voyeur? The individual behind the camera or the audience themselves?